Yom Kippur 5786
Rabbi Jablinowitz
The Gemara in Yoma 81B darshens the pasuk in parshat Emor which teaches the mitzvah of Yom Kippur. When teaching the date of Yom Kippur, the pasuk says (Chapter 23, Pasuk 32), בתשעה לחדש בערב מערב עד ערב תשבתו שבתכם. The Gemara learns from the fact that the pasuk teaches that Yom Kippur is on the ninth of Tishrei at night, that we must take from the weekday and add it to the holy day; מוסיפין מחול על הקודש. And from the fact that the pasuk also says מערב עד ערב, the Gemara derives that this addition takes place at the end of the day of Yom Kippur as well.
The Gemara continues and extends this concept of adding to the holy day to Shabbos and Yom Tov as well. Though the Rambam learns in Hilchos Shevisas Asor, Chapter 1, Halacha 5, that this mitzvah of adding to the day only applies to the fasting on Yom Kippur, most Rishonim learn that this also applies to the prohibition of melacha on Shabbos and Yom Tov, as the Gemara itself seems to indicate. Why is it, then, that Yom Kippur is the source of this important mitzvah of adding to the sanctity of Shabbos, and all the Yomim Tovim?
The Sfas Emes, quoting the Zohar Hakadosh and Medrashim, teaches that Yom Kippur is the most unique day of the year. It is truly מעין עולם הבא. And though the same is true of Shabbos, Yom Kippur is a higher level of other worldly. On Shabbos, though we refrain from melacha, other physical activity, like eating and drinking, continues. On Yom Kippur, eating, drinking, and marital relations are all prohibited. And the Gemara in Yoma 20A teaches that Yom Kippur is the one day a year the Satan doesn’t provoke us. (The Gemara states that השטן is the Gematria of 364, all the other days of the year). On Yom Kippur, we are truly living on a spiritual plane.
The reason that the mitzvah of מוסיפין מחול על הקודש is derived from Yom Kippur, is because Yom Kippur is a day which we attempt to extend to the rest of the year. We don’t want our experience of Yom Kippur to be a one-time experience. We want to carry our inspiration of Yom Kippur over to the other days of the year as well. One of the 13 principles of Rabbi Yishmael used to darshen the Torah, is that something which was part of the general group, and was then singled out, is not merely an exception to the rule, but teaches something about the general rule as well. So too by Yom Kippur; it is an exception among all the days of the year. But it is also meant to impact and define how the rest of the year should be as well.
It is taught in Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer (Chapter 29) that Avraham Avinu performed the mitzvah of Bris Milah on Yom Kippur. This is derived from a גזרה שווה between the Bris of Avraham and Yom Kippur. By Avraham Avinu the pasuk says (Chapter 17, Pasuk 26), בעצם היום הזה נמול אברהם. And by Yom Kippur the pasuk says (Chapter 23, Pasuk 28), וכל מלאכה לא תעשו בעצם היום הזה. Therefore, part of the Avodah of Yom Kippur is to purify ourselves by sanctifying and strengthening the mitzvah of Milah.
This is consistent with the idea that on Yom Kippur we are removed from the yetzer hara. We have a greater ability to remove the ערלה of the yetzer hara, as the pasuk says in parshat Nitzavim (Chapter 30, Pasuk 6), ומל ד' אלוקיך את לבבך ואת לבב זרעך. Hashem will circumcise your heart. And just as the day of Yom Kippur is meant to inform and impact the rest of the days of the year, strengthening the mitzvah of Milah within ourselves is meant to impact on our entire being as well.
Therefore, the day of Yom Kippur is a day of great joy. It is a day when we escape our mundane, physical reality in this world and experience great light from a higher sphere. And to express this joy, we eat on Erev Yom Kippur, the day of תוספת יום הכפורים, as an expression of our appreciation for this day of purity and Teshuva. And the same is true on Motzei Yom Kippur; the Rema paskens in Siman 624, ואוכלים ושמחים במוצאי יום הכפורים דהוי קצת יום טוב. The day after Yom Kippur is also a Yom Tov. We express this joy both before and after Yom Kippur. And this joy is an expression of our attempt to spread the holiness and connectedness of Yom Kippur to not only the day before and after, the days of תוספת יום הכפורים, but to the entire year as well.
Good Shabbos and Gemar Chasima Tova
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